April 19, 2025 marks the 30th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. Timothy McVeigh’s act of terror took the lives of 168 people, including 25 children, who were inside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building when McVeigh’s truck bomb detonated outside. A powerful new three-part National Geographic documentary series revisits the tragedy this week, seeking to connect the bombing starkly to the present day.
Unfortunately for the makers of Oklahoma City Bombing: One Day in America, the series trails behind another impactful documentary on the subject by almost a year. Max’s Katie Couric-produced film, An American Bombing: The Road to April 19th featured many of the same interviewees who tell their stories once again in Oklahoma City Bombing. These include former President Bill Clinton, District Fire Chief Mike Shannon and FBI agent Bob Ricks. The families of victims, including brothers Chase and Colton Smith who died at the building’s day care center, and interpreter Julie Welch who was working on the first floor, are also featured in both.
While some of the quotes offered during The Road to April 19th are repeated almost word-for-word in Oklahoma City Bombing, the new series differs enough to make a viewing worthwhile. The Road to April 19th focused primarily on the social and economic circumstances that led not just to McVeigh’s actions, but to a move towards extremist ideologies in America’s heartland. Oklahoma City Bombing takes a much more personal approach and does a far deeper dive into the minute-by-minute events of the day.
One of Oklahoma City Bombing’s most valuable assets is Mike Shannon. The agony he experienced on April 19 as he made life-and-death decisions for his fire crew, as well as for victims still buried in the rubble, provide tension and an emotional wallop that The Road to April 19th often lacked. One of the victims trapped in the debris, Amy Downs, also talks with visceral candor about the hours she spent waiting for death in the half-collapsed building. The experience inspired her to transform her life and pursue a path to honor the many coworkers she lost that day. Julie Welch’s father, Bud, also movingly describes how his daughter’s death transformed his life’s purpose.
